BUSCAPADES (Part 3)

My last two blogs told of humorous “buscapades” experienced by my parents. In 1953 I had my own bus adventure and, although it wasn’t very funny it was really exciting for me at the time and I relate it here.

When I was between my Sophomore and Junior years in college I, and a classmate, traveled from Massachusetts to California by Greyhound bus. I will never forget that long, l-o-o-o-ng trip. Even traveling non-stop it took 4 days to get to Los Angeles.

There were many stops along the way but only one that gave us time to shower and wash our hair. Gayle and I were sorely in need of both so we headed for the ladies room as soon as the driver told us that this was a “wash up” stop. We didn’t realize that we would be charged for this privilege and we decided to “beat the system” and save 25c in the bargain. . We crowded together in one booth…vying with each other for every drop of precious water. The only problem was that the booth had a door that reached only half-way to the floor &, of course, the attendant saw our four legs and we ended up paying the full price after all.

Ours was a full bus so we were pretty much confined to our seats. I remember catching sleep at odd intervals and all of it in a sitting-up position. There were other young people aboard and we did a lot of singing and even some card playing; but, mainly we gazed at the scenery. One night I awoke after a fitful hour or two of sleep and was petrified when I looked out the window. It felt as if the road had disappeared and all I could see was the deep ravine that we were crossing…no guard rails in sight !

Of course we had no chance to exercise so that by the time we landed in Los Angeles our ankles had swollen to twice their size and we could hardly walk. We were met by my beautiful slim sister and her handsome Danish husband. They looked like an advertisement for the good life in California, as compared to us, the pasty complexioned and fat relatives from the East.

Not to worry. We were back to normal in a few days and landed a good job in a fancy restaurant overlooking the Pacific. (That’s us in our waitress garb…Gayle on the left.)